Ohio veterans talk overcoming military discrimination

Tuesday

Feb 18, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 19, 2014 at 12:40 PM

John B. Williams and four other veterans shared their stories at the Statehouse as part of a Black History Month event hosted by the Ohio Department of Veterans Services. The veterans ranged in age from 34 to 91 and together represented service in four wars. They spoke of discrimination on post and off base, and said they always felt as if they had to work harder, to do more, to be better, just to gain the same respect as their white counterparts.

Holly Zachariah, The Columbus Dispatch

It’s been 70 years since the clerk at the Post Exchange on the Virginia Army base refused to touch the hand of the black soldier in front of her.

But John B. Williams, now 91, can recall the scene as if it happened yesterday. The soldier was a buddy of his, a fellow member of this country’s famed black cavalry troop, the Buffalo Soldiers.

And, as Williams tells the story he watched unfold back in 1943 just as his unit was ready to ship out for overseas, the clerk gave a white soldier his change by dropping the coins into the palm of the man’s hand. The black soldier? She tossed his change on the counter instead.

Williams said a scuffle between the soldiers ensued after the black soldier asked the woman about her actions.

“We almost had to fight our way out of America,” said Williams, of Columbus. “That’s the first time I knew things were going to be different for us.”

Williams and four other veterans shared their stories at the Statehouse as part of a Black History Month event hosted by the Ohio Department of Veterans Services. The veterans ranged in age from 34 to 91 and together represented service in four wars.

They spoke of discrimination on post and off base, and said they always felt as if they had to work harder, to do more, to be better, just to gain the same respect as their white counterparts.

Yet not one is bitter. None remains angry. Each said, unequivocally, he would recommend military service to any young black man or woman who inquired. In fact, they said, they’d recommend it to anyone at all.

Capt. Sephan Andrew Frazier, at 34, was the freshman of the assembled group yesterday. He said that once, when he told others that he was headed to an engineering battalion, someone said: “You know blacks don’t do well as engineers. There’s a lot of calculations.”

Frazier, of Columbus, said he reminded the person that he went to college to be a math teacher, then went about his business. Serving isn’t about color, it’s about commitment, he said.

“When my country calls, I am always ready to deploy,” said Frazier, who serves full time with the 16th Engineer Brigade of the Ohio Army National Guard and has done a tour in Afghanistan. “If you’re not ready, you better take off the uniform. It’s the greatest honor any of us can have.”

America’s armed forces were officially desegregated in 1948, but these soldiers say that didn’t mean the discrimination ended there.

Today, African-Americans account for nearly 17 percent of active-duty military personnel and about 15 percent of the National Guard and Reserve, according to the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense.

But Beauford T. Williams served at a different time in the Army, right after the Korean War. He said he never felt different in the service because of the color of his skin. Civilian life afterward was a different story, said Williams, now 81 and living in Shiloh in northern Ohio.

Returning home to Indiana, he knew of a particular subdivision where veterans could buy houses for about $100 down and $99 a month. Five times he applied, and five times he was rejected.

The man overseeing the sales told Williams that no black man would ever live there “as long he was alive.”

“At that point I questioned, ‘Why did I serve?’ Why should I allow my sons to serve?’” Williams said.

Then, he said, he thought back to what his parents had taught him: “Do not let anyone under any circumstances define who you are. I live by that.”